The CATABUS is nothing short of a life saver for many here at Penn State, especially for those living in houses and apartments for rent in State College, PA near campus. Whether it helps you get to class, the Nittany Mall, or to your apartment safely after a night out, you can always count on the CATABUS to take you where you need to go.

Tips for Navigating the CATABUS System:

Get a CATABUS Pass: Depending on your off-campus housing choice, a CATABUS pass can be included in your rent and grants you access to certain routes that would normally cost a fare to use. Fares certainly add up if you don’t have a Bus Pass, so I would advise all students to get one (especially for routes they will travel most often).

Learn the routes: Once on campus, there are four integrated routes that make it easier for you to get from one end of the campus to the other. These four routes are FREE—yes, we said FREE—and are made possible by a partnership between the Pennsylvania State University and the Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA). Thank you CATA, we love you more than words can describe.

The four routes are addressed as either LOOPs or LINKs:

The Blue and White LOOP provide the circulator service around the Penn State Campus and Downtown State College. They run clockwise via College Avenue and counterclockwise via Beaver Avenue respectively.

The Red Link runs back and forth across campus between Innovation Park and West Campus (White Course Apartments) via Curtin Road and Park Avenue.

The Green Link provides additional service along that same route as the Red Link, but just in the more heavily traveled portion between the Stadium parking lots and Atherton Street. This service is popular with Penn State students—even the bike riders can hitch a ride, as all buses are equipped with a bike rack to accommodate passengers.

All campus buses (LOOP and LINK) run very frequently, which make them convenient to get to class, downtown, or anywhere else you don’t feel like hoofing it.

3. Download & familiarize yourself with the CATA app—it allows you track exactly where your bus is as well as time of arrival, which can be a huge time-saver and is useful when planning your day.

Callie Kollenbroich has been the Operations Coordinator and Content Writer/Editor at Rent College Pads since 2015. When she’s not working, you can find her at home, eating peanut butter out of the jar and bingeing an unhealthy amount of Forensic Files. She’s not as lame as she sounds.